For the past few days we’ve been talking about the sweeping currents of the broader world. Today, let’s bring it back to earth and talk about something both you and I care about — a “small” but deeply personal topic.
That is: what mindset should we carry as we face an uncertain future?
After much reflection, I’ve decided to say everything I want to tell you in a short piece of writing. Remember this above all else: no matter how difficult the coming season of your life becomes — do not doubt yourself. Do not deny your own worth.
Whether you’ve been laid off, whether your business has hit a wall, whether your stocks keep falling and your real estate refuses to appreciate — do not give up. And do not surrender to despair, numbing yourself with alcohol, cigarettes, or other indulgences.
You can cry. You can curse. You can even lock your door, turn off your phone, and disappear for two or three days — let yourself fully decompress. That’s allowed.
But in the end, you must summon that last breath of grit. Stand tall. Try to become your own savior.
Then, bearing up under the weight of it all, solve your problems — one piece at a time.
Because you must remember: no one in this world has ever had a life that sailed smoothly without interruption. Everything you’re going through, the vast majority of people have gone through too. They just handled it quietly, in their own ways — the bitterness and the warmth, each known only to themselves.
Especially those people you see as successful — don’t for a moment think they arrived where they are today purely by luck. Their success, their strength, their financial freedom — all of it was built on the experiences they accumulated and the exceptional capabilities those experiences forged within them.
They were once just like you. They encountered problems that seemed completely impossible to solve. They too questioned and doubted themselves when misfortune kept piling up.
But there was one thing they got right: they persisted, methodically pulling at each loose thread until, slowly, the knot came undone.
Yes, the process was painful. It took a long time. It looked hopeless.
But they gritted their teeth — and they made it through.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of reading the destiny charts (BaZi) of many individuals worth tens of billions — even hundreds of billions. I’ve had the honor of offering insights from Chinese metaphysics to leaders at the highest levels.
Yet every time I open one of their destiny charts, there’s one thing that never fails to move me.
Their lives — the outward bloom of glory and brilliance — that was truly only the face they showed the world, and only for a moment. What lay beneath was mostly silent, heavy forward motion: charging headfirst through wave after wave of adversity.
It was precisely hardship that made them. And they never let hardship go unmet — until finally, the two reached a reconciliation, each completing the other.
In the same way, once you come through your ordeal and look back, you will discover something profound: all the suffering that did not kill you was never a curse. It was a whetstone — grinding you sharper, more refined, more formidable with every pass.
Fate’s torment and its gifts are two faces of the same coin. It all depends entirely on how you choose to see them.
And the reason I’m stepping back from the sweeping essays of recent days to share this more personal reflection is simply this: from where I stand, the next few years are going to be genuinely hard.
“Hard” may sound like just a word, but when it lands on your shoulders, it becomes a crushing weight of real, compounded problems.
Still, I want to tell you: hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
Don’t say you’re giving up too early. Don’t surrender too quickly. Meet it with composure and calm — there is always a way forward. Even the hardest problem has an answer; you just need the patience to find the right approach to solving it. Even the most desolate road has an end; you just need the endurance to walk through the frost until you reach it.
No one is fortunate their entire life. No one suffers their entire life.
If you’ve truly lost your direction — if you’ve hit despair — here is my prescription:
Start by giving yourself full permission to say: “I have done everything I can today. Right now, I need to rest. I need to restore my energy before I can move forward again.”
Then pick up a good book. Sink into it and read with your full attention. When sleep comes for you, find a bed, lie down, and let yourself rest completely.
When you wake: drink water, eat a meal, then set your jaw and return to the work in front of you.
One day at a time. Three difficult problems — resolve them, no matter what it takes. When they’re done, begin the cycle again: read, rest, eat, strive. A rhythm without end.
Trust me — if you live this way, even the most impossibly large obstacle will be resolved within two years. When that time comes, wipe the numbness from your eyes and look at the person staring back at you in the mirror. You will understand in your bones what it truly means that “great vows call forth great trials” — what it means to be reborn from the inside out, and what it truly means to emerge from the fire.
Of course, if you genuinely feel you have no sense of direction, know this: you are absolutely not the only one in this world struggling and striving this way. The reason you feel lonely is that you haven’t yet found your tribe. That is why you feel anxious, afraid, isolated, and cold. But your people are out there — some have already broken free and found their footing; others are still in the thick of it, but with dawn drawing near.